"In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps."

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Two Beds

Today has been pretty quiet. Nick usually has to work Saturdays here so they are like any other weekday. We up at the same time, and get him moving so it has been just Isla and I.

Random comment of the day – I think that when Isla was a baby I suffered from IDOB by proxy – IDOB for in denial of baldness. When I look at pictures – she was a total Elmer Fudd, but I never thought she was bald at all, and I don’t know how I didn’t see it. Well it seems like all of a sudden her hair is getting really long, and my favorite think about her long hair – her adorable bedhead! The only thing cuter than a little baby mullet, is a bed-headed baby mullet.

Another random Isla cuteness – today I was trying to get her into her little hooded towel, and she very decidedly went and grabbed a hand towel and wrapped it around her waist – just like her dad.

Now for today’s nap – thank you everyone who sent me a message. I will be getting back to you tonight with further questions because many of your ideas intrigued me and I need a full investigation of how you implement your suggestions and what exactly you think is the secret to your success.

I got this email from my mom, which I thought was hilarious. Oh to be a grandmother! I am thankful that Isla has a Cookie and a Boo who love her to pieces.

Isla is not stubborn, she is an angel!! Seriously.no way would I let her scream for more than 20 minutes. Seriously think about how good she is almost always, if naptime is her naughty time don't judge her personality by that short little time of day. What does baby wise say? I would scream too if I was penned up for 2 hours or more. Bring her home!!!!! Lighten up, love you lots!

The thing is after last night, I remembered why I am always such a stickler for naps, and that in my experience as a mom – a well rested Isla is a happy Isla. And last night she was so bad! I was at my wits end by the time Nick got home. She peepeed her pants about 3 or 4 times, when she has basically been peepee at home potty trained for months. She dumped out her food. She was fussy. She was disobedient. She was unhappy and frustrated with everything. She was not her usual cheery self. I resolved to make today a different day.

Then I had a little breakthrough on my own. I remembered in the Baby Whisperer she mentioned that Active-type babies (which Isla definitely is) need all visual stimulation blocked out before they can nap, or that it at least helps them nap. I theorized that maybe that was the reason why she didn’t have any trouble getting to sleep at night, but why she had such trouble during the day. She has a big window in her room, and even a tiny crack in her window treatments lets in a lot of light.

At first I was kind of a Nazi about keeping it dark during the day – see this post HERE – for her naps. In case you haven’t guessed, I am kind of a Nazi about naps in general. However, lately some of the duck tape has come apart, and I have been closing the curtains and it has been lighter, but I figure that Isla should learn to sleep in a semi-light room during the days at this point. But yesterday I thought that that might be a mistake, and so I decided to try putting her down in a place with no outside light, with all visual stimulation blocked, that is… BACK IN OUR CLOSET!

As much as I am afraid of her developing a love for burnt orange by osmosis, I was willing to try it. I hated putting her in there when she was a tiny baby before we got her curtains figured out, but she is a big, sturdy girl now so I don’t feel quite so guilty.

And what did Isla think??? She LOVED it. She took one look at it and said “two beds”!

A little bit of background, Isla has been really into a baby doll that my penpal got her in May. She loves “baby”. My MIL also got her the same baby doll when we were in Texas this summer, so I just left one at my mom’s house (one for the states, one for Russia). Well she had to bring “baby” when we went back to the states this Christmas, and when she got to my mom’s house and realized that she had TWINS – oh my! She was over the moon. She immediately said “TWO BABIES!” and she has been inseparable from them ever since. Also how she knew to say “two babies” is beyond me – I have no reasonable explanation other than she might be a genius.

Anyway, ever since then she has been into having TWO of everything. Two Grovers (Another Monster at the End of this Book App plus two Grover dolls that she got for Christmas), two night nights (blankets)… At our house we have potty(guest bathroom) and two potty (our bathroom), you get the idea.

She has even started saying her prayers like this “Bless you Boo. Bless you Cookie. Bless you Pawpaw. Bless you two Pawpaw.” Its pretty cute.

So needless to say she was pretty excited about having TWO beds. She went down without a saying anything other than “night night two babies”, and she slept for an hour. Now the nap was shorter than I would have liked, but I sort of rushed her this morning by a good hour. The first yawn I saw I put her to bed. I got the worst migraine that I have had in a while and I was anxious to go lay down.

And I have been taking it easy all day, the reason – I wanted to be well enough to go out tonight because we are going to see a certain someone! I plan on doing an blog post on my night tonight tomorrow, and I don’t want to ruin the surprise – but I think you will be very excited to hear who it is!